CHICAGO – A proud father visiting his son in Afghanistan spent what would become both men’s final days seeing the city where the younger man ran a small clinic, drinking tea with a university colleague and learning about his son’s work.
Gary Gabel of suburban Chicago and his son, John Gabel, were killed Thursday when an Afghan police security guard opened fire on the group as they entered the grounds of a hospital in Kabul. Also killed was Dr. Jerry Umanos, a pediatrician from Chicago. John Gabel’s wife, also an American, was wounded.
What prompted the guard to fire on the Americans was not clear. Violence has increased in Afghanistan ahead of the NATO withdrawal and also in the weeks leading up to the country’s April 5 election.
Whether the couple’s young daughter, Laila, and John Gabel’s mother, Betty, were along for the visit to the Cure International Hospital also remains unclear. Umanos, who trained young doctors and cared for pediatric patients at the hospital, had invited the family as his guests.
Gary and Betty Gabel “were concerned about helping others,” Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas W. Hayes told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald. The mayor said he’s known the family for 25 years as members of Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights.
Kabul University Vice Chancellor Mohammad Hadi Hadayati remembered John Gabel as a “good friend” who worked for the Colorado Springs-based charity Morning Star Development and ran a small health clinic that provided a pharmacy and emergency care for the students, professors and employees.
John Gabel had directed the clinic for two years under an agreement between Kabul University and Morning Star, Hadayati said. A phone message left with Morning Star Development on Saturday was not immediately returned.
“We have lost a great man, a great teacher, a man who was here only to serve the Afghan people,” said Hadayati, who had lunch with the whole family the day before the attack.
“I was very honored to meet John’s parents,” Hadayati said. “Both his mother and father were so proud of their son.”
